Presentation: 86 million Indians access internet on mobiles

The ubiquitous nature of mobile phones has created a massive opportunity for mobile internet businesses and has also contributed in improving the reach of internet by a few multiples.

Global investment firm Avendus, in its recent report titled 'India's Mobile Internet - The revolution has begun', has stated that India has more than 160 million internet users, of which 86 million access internet through their mobile devices.

This report is the culmination of secondary data and interviews of industry practitioners. The report further emphasises that in the last three to four years, the number of users who accessed the internet through a 3G connection has grown to 22 million in India. Besides this, 9 per cent of overall internet page views in India come from mobile devices and over 40 per cent of searches on Google originate from mobiles.

India already has more than 36 million smartphone users as against 60 million PC users. However, the real play is coming from feature phones, which have taken the overall number of internet capable devices to 431 million.

The report also highlights that 30 per cent of Facebook users in India are mobile-only internet users and 30 per cent of new registrations on the platform are coming through mobile. LinkedIn ranks India among its top four growth markets for mobile usage.

The report claims that the mobile ecosystem is demonstrating that it can improve the reach of internet by a few multiples. The growth of social media and the ability of mobile devices to add location to the product mix are providing opportunities for businesses to fundamentally alter the way users engage socially or the manner in which they purchase goods and services.

Indians also seem to be more open to paying for content on mobile, taking the paid app market to Rs 300 crore.